Former military governor of Kaduna state, Colonel Abubakar Umar Dangiwa (rtd.) has said that owing to the current financial crisis in most of the ‘unviable’ states, it would be a case of insanity for anyone to still be talking of creation of more states in Nigeria.
Dangiwa posited: “it is evident that most of the states and local governments are unviable and should not have been created in the first place. One of the greatest disservice to the nation by some military regimes was the creation of these unviable, revenue guzzling administrative (maladministrative) structures. They have continued to serve as a drag to our national development. “But for its impracticability, one would recommend a constitutional abrogation of some of them. Goes to show that any plot to create more states and local governments is plain insanity.”
The fire-spitting former governor spoke in a statement today, against the background of what he called “the current desperate financial situation of most State governments or at least those of them that have declared insolvency.”
Dangiwa who now chair a None Governmental Organization (NGO) known as Movement for the Unity and Progress, cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow himself to be bamboozled by the confused state governors.
“I am sure President Buhari will not allow himself to be hoodwinked. He must maintain the separation of powers between the tiers of government and enforce budgetary discipline. In fact, he should discourage governors from making frivolous demands from the federal government. This will serve to discourage their frequent visits to Aso Rock.”
Dangiwa said that the current financial crisis which has led some states to become insolvent, having lost the capacity to meet their most basic fiscal responsibility of paying their workers’ salaries and contractual obligations, including the servicing of their jumbo bank loans is a nightmare long foretold, not only by the cassandras of this world.
“We had cause to warn about the reckless extravagance of those states which led them to a borrowing spree from commercial banks at very high rates of interest. In reaction to our alert, the state governors tried to defend their actions, claiming they were all deliberate plan to finance development projects needed to raise internally generated revenue; a way to cut dependence on oil money.
“No one was fooled, and as we expected, the chickens have finally come home to roost. Faced with this dire financial situation, they are running from pillar to post in search of rescue. They have so far approached the FGN with an ill thought out bail out plan, requiring president Buhari to give them cash or his government to guarantee for them more loans from commercial banks, having exhausted the Excess crude account and no bank is willing to advance anymore loans to them.
“They also want the FGN to instruct their creditors, the commercial banks, to allow them a moratorium period of twenty years without indicating a viable repayment plan within the period. Luckily the banks are privately owned and not subject to any governments dictates.”
The former administrator said it is not clear if state Governors ever gave thought to the political and even ethical implications of their demands on the Federal Government and asked: “doesn’t it ever occur to them that by always coming to the federal government cap in hand, they expose their own sordid impotence and give additional ammunition to those that question the wisdom of running our peculiar federation through so many states and local governments – all of which depend on the centre to survive?
“Are they aware that the public has gained the impression that states are run without fiscal discipline, especially where the egos and whims of the Governors are quite large?”
Dangiwa turned to president Buhari, who he said should ask some questions before he extends a helping hand to any cash-strapped governors, including how they got into the problem in the first place.
He wanted the President to get such governors treated of the diseases which he listed as extravagance, lavish lifestyle, prodigality, profligacy, squandamania as well as corruption.”
Dangiwa recalled that one of the reasons given by state governments for their current financial mess is the failure of the federal government to reimburse them for projects executed in their states on its behalf.
He insisted that for such claims to be valid, states with such claims should have developed written contractual agreements with with the federal government, even as he also insisted that the federal government has the structure and capacity to execute its projects and should not ask any state to perform its functions. [myad]
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